It has been a few weeks since we last looked at the Better Tabernacle in my study from Hebrews. You can go back to posts on 9/13/08 and 9/21/08 to refresh your memory about the Old Covenant Tabernacle if you wish. Let’s continue our journey into the desert tabernacle and see how the New Covenant tabernacle is better.
As you look further into the compound the next thing that was seen was a small rectangular tent that housed the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. Only the priests were allowed into the Holy Place.
Step through the curtain and into the Holy Place and the light from the golden candlestick immediatelycaptures your attention and washes light over the entire Holy Place. This is the only light within the tabernacle and the light from the oil lamps reflecting off the pure gold candlestick had to be spectacular!! This light allowed the priests to minister daily before God in the Holy place.
In John 8:12 Jesus tells the Pharisees that He is “the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” In Revelation 21: 23 John reminds us that “the city (the New Jerusalem) had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.” Emphasis mine.
Also in the Holy Place on the right or north side was a long rectangular table known as the Table of Showbread which was made of acacia wood overlaid with pure gold. On this table were placed 12 loaves of bread once a week. This bread was left on the table before the Lord all week and when it was changed, the priests were allowed to use it for their food. Jesus said in John 6:48, “I am the bread of life.” ‘Nuf said about that symbolic piece of furniture.
The final piece of furniture in the Holy Place was the golden altar on which pure incense was burned. This altar was also made of acacia wood overlaid with pure gold. Only coals from the brazen altar could be used to burn incense on this altar and in the one case where someone tried to use another source of fire, the outcome for those men was immediate death(see Leviticus 10).
In the New Testament, incense symbolizes the prayers of the saints as is spoken of in Revelation 5:8 (…”the twenty four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”) Hebrews 7:25 tells us that Jesus is able to save completely anyone who comes to God through Him because He lives to intercede (pray) for us in heaven. I don’t think it is a theological stretch to equate the altar of incense with the prayers that Jesus offers eternally for you and for me.
Finally, as we lift the heavy veil and walk into the Holy of Holies we see the Ark of the Covenant and the gold mercy seat. The Ark of the Covenant was the place where the very Presence of God dwelt among the Israelites. On top of the Ark was the solid gold mercy seat, sometimes called the atonement cover, where the priest would sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice once a year to atone for the sins of the people.
The Greek word for mercy seat or atonement cover is ‘hilasterion’. This same Greek word is used by Paul in Romans 3:25 when he referred to Jesus: “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.” Paul is telling us that Jesus Christ was the true mercy seat because he came to earth and died to provide atonement and reconciliation for man to God. In Hebrews 2:17 the writer tells the Jewish Christians that Jesus “had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. John the Beloved encourages us in 1 John 2:2 by saying, “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”
This wilderness tabernacle made by man and for man was all about reconciliation and relationship, yet still man could not come near to God. The priests ministered in the Holy Place day and night, never sitting down because their work was never finished. The High Priest went into the Holy of Holies once a year, and then only with blood, to atone for his sins and the sins of the nation. The reconciliation that took place was only partial and temporary. Despite the sacrifices and offerings, common man had no access to God, whose Presence was enthroned behind the veil that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies.
The better tabernacle spoken of in Hebrews will be heaven when we live in the presence of the Lamb. 
